2 Best Restaurants in Madrid, Spain

Fire is the secret ingredient at Roostiq, where pizzas sizzle and puff in a wood-burning oven and meat, fish, and vegetables char until tender over white-hot embers. Even the cheesecake is of the Basque "burnt" variety, brown and caramel-y on the outside and gooey within. The open-hearth technology may be older than the hills, but the buffed concrete walls, zany ceramic plates, and sturdy wooden and marble tables are unmistakably cutting-edge.

Roast duck carved tableside, truffled pâté en croûte, flambéed Grand Marnier soufflé—Saddle does old-school opulence exceptionally well. Multi-course meals unfold in the anachronistically corporate-chic dining room (think LED backlighting and mid-century modern accents), and feature rare seasonal delicacies including de lágrima (tear-shaped) baby peas and buttery new potatoes flown in from the Canary Islands. Cheese, butter, and cocktail carts rove from table to table and encyclopedic wine stewards go above and beyond, regaling you with curious anecdotes about each individual bottle.